Addendum to Nobby Clark’s Scrapyard

[Gordon Ferguson]

Think this all started because Barney was feeling sorry for me ..... I was going thro that situation all modellers, or at least ones like me , lots of half finished projects and no real enthusiasm to finish anything ...... so Barney springs into action 

I need a little help with the scrapyard dio says he , OK what can I do says I
I need a small diesel critter says he , OK says I
Mind you it has to be scratch built , ...... Ok says I
And finished & painted ...............pause.............OK says I

And you have 3 weeks !!! , says my friend 

Sufficient to say , there was then a flurry of emails to decide on a critter which we both liked , the setting of some criteria .... Such as Barney is not keen on solid wheels  , had to have bits missing , could not be over 80mm long .... We are talking 1/35 scale here , and so on

Finally we agreed on this one from my files , a McCormick Deering tractor based critter

To be continued ....

[Gordon Ferguson]

Now there is nothing exciting , new or cutting edge in this little build.

At this stage I only had the photo above as a reference and some basic dimensions of McComick Deering tractors ....... Pretty quickly via the magic of Google I identified the possible original tractor as being a 10- 20, this allowed me rough out sizes and shapes.
These tractors used a cast under-pan , if that is what it's called, which acts as engine bearer, transmission and chassis all in one

So this horrible pic shows the  under-pan carved out of balsa, which was coated/soaked in super glue allowing me to carve out and hollow the the pan for engine to sit in ...... at this stage a basic engine block was put together using the piston diameter info I had to guesstimate engine length and width ... this allowed me to check the whittling progress on the pan

The strange colours are due to the first coats of primer being applied to check surface finish

[Gordon Ferguson]

I don't have any in progress shots of next stage , so you are just going to have to take my word that all the transmission , steering box humps and bumps were all just pieces of scrap plastic tubing, square and round added to try and look like some reference photos I had found on the internet .

The photo shows the unit again after a primer coat, I had used fillets of thin superglue to try and replicate the "rounded look" of a cast object ( the internal corners specifically ) and the primer was applied to check this look

[Gordon Ferguson]

And with basic engine in place

[Gordon Ferguson]

After this it was all just basic building , the chassis could not really be any simpler

[Gordon Ferguson]

And again checks along the way to see that I had measured twice and cut once 

[Gordon Ferguson]

I made up a master for the wheels, as I said Barney is not to keen on solid wheels , so I deviated from the prototype here .... These were then cast in resin and the thing is starting to look like a critter 

[Gordon Ferguson]

Final details were added

[Gordon Ferguson]

So that's it , final shots of completed .... And painted  

[Gordon Ferguson]

And

[Gordon Ferguson]

And

[finescalerr]

A most satisfactory example of "basic building" with nothing new, exciting, or cutting edge. And wonderful to see you here again. I love that you used balsa for the under pan. Post more things more often. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Great job! I'm impressed by both the speed and the quality of your work.

Someday I'd like to build a small critter like this in 1/24th for my RR, and make it run.

[Les Tindall]

A lovely job, and not a lego block in sight!  Barney should be well pleased with that critter.  A great idea using a balsa piece for the lower engine pan. Gordon you always seem to come up with superb solutions to what would have been a difficult job (I think back to your way of making the wheels for the Ransomes Portable).
Les

[Gordon Ferguson]

Thank you Russ, Ray and Les for the kind words .

Balsa, a much underrated material nowadays ......Les with Stuart's timescale "necessity was the mother of invention" 

Russ, give me a break!, you do realise I have posted details of 2 finished models this year